Agricultural vehicles come in various forms for cutting and processing crop material. Combine harvesters (or “combines”), for example, are agricultural vehicles that may be configured to reap, thresh, and winnow various crops. Combines typically gather crop materials from the field with a header mounted to a feederhouse at the forward end of the combine. Various internal mechanisms may then separate and clean various portions of the gathered crop material. A particular combine may be able to gather and process different types of crops depending on the configuration of the particular header that is mounted to the combine. For example, a grain header can be attached for harvesting wheat and a corn header can be attached for harvesting corn.
Certain agricultural vehicles, including various combines, may include a cleaning system for separating chaff and trash from other portions of gathered material. In typical combines, for example, a cleaning system may include a separator, a cleaning shoe, and a cleaning fan. Crop material gathered by the combine may be directed through the separator to the cleaning shoe, where an air flow from a cleaning fan separates lighter chaff from heavier materials (e.g., grain). In typical designs, the cleaning shoe may include a chaffer and a sieve, through which crop material may be sifted. Heavier crop materials (e.g., grain) may fall through openings on the chaffer and the sieve (e.g., through transverse louvers) for transport to a grain tank, as air flow from the cleaning fan may blow lighter material (e.g., chaff) upwards and backwards towards the rear of the combine.
In order to achieve desired performance in cleaning (or other) operations, it may be useful to utilize relatively large cleaning shoes (or other devices). However, the size of a particular vehicle may limit the amount of space within which these devices may be disposed. Accordingly, it may be useful to arrange various devices and components within a combine (or other vehicle) such that available space is utilized with appropriate efficiency.